NOTE: This contains three files. One is a scan of the actual book (the 1942 edition) - but this is incomplete (and has a brief intro added). The second PDF is a brief biography of the author, MP Arthur Ponsonby. The third PDF is the entire book, converted from a long HTML page found here: http://www.vlib.us.

Falsehood in War-time, Containing an Assortment of Lies Circulated Throughout the Nations During the Great War, written by Arthur Ponsonby in 1928 ^[1] lists and refutes pieces of propaganda used by the Allied Forces (Russia, France, Britain and the United States) against the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria).^[2]

After the Second World War, a new edition of the book was given the updated title Falsehood in War-Time: Propaganda Lies of the First World War.

Falsehood in War-time identifies the role propaganda played in World War I, in general and specific terms and lists over 20 falsehoods that were circulated during the First World War. Indicative of his worldview Ponsonby regards these falsehoods as a fundamental part of the way the war effort was created and sustained, claiming that without lies there would be “no reason and no will for war”.^[4]

Some of these falsehoods contain atrocity propaganda reported on German Army troops which were reported killing and maiming of inoccent civilians and captured soldiers.^[5]

Another example made throughout the war was the mistranslation of the opening lines of a German patriotic song:"Deutschland über Alles auf der ganzen Welt".---(Germany above all things in the whole world). It was popularly accepted as meaning, " (Let) Germany (rule) over everywhere in the whole world," i.e. the German domination of the world.

German grammar distinguishes between über alles i.e. above everything (for me), and über allen, meaning "above everyone else." However, the latter misleading translation was chosen by the Allies during both World Wars for propaganda purposes.^[6]

Anne Morelli has summarized and systematized the contents of Ponsonby's classic in "ten commandments of propaganda":^[7]

1. We do not want war.
2. The opposite party alone is guilty of war.
3. The enemy is the face of the devil.
4. We defend a noble cause, not our own interest.
5. The enemy systematically commits cruelties; our mishaps are involuntary.
6. The enemy uses forbidden weapons.
7. We suffer small losses, those of the enemy are enormous.
8. Artists and intellectuals back our cause.
9. Our cause is sacred.
10. All who doubt our propaganda, are traitors.^[8][9]

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